Searchable article text
RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2018 :: RMTnews
10
T
he on-going chaos and
passenger misery on
Southern Rail, Britain’s worst
performing railway, “could have
been avoided,” according to a
damning National Audit Office
(NAO) report.
The long-awaited inquiry
into the Southern Rail fiasco
found that the operation “has
not delivered value for money”
and concluded that Tory
ministers failed to anticipate
that plans to axe train guards
would be met with fierce
resistance.
The government has also
been forced to admit that it had
bunged Southern Rail over £20
million of taxpayers’ money to
keep the dispute over safety
running for nearly two years.
The Department for Transport
(DfT) and Southern parent
company Govia Thameslink
Railway (GTR) claim that
industrial action was the biggest
cause of cancellations, although
the operator has also been hit
by a shortage of staff and beset
with problems when no strikes
have taken place.
In over 20 months of
industrial action there has been
39 strike days which is less than
two a month on average while
the performance on non-strike
days has been equally dire.
Moreover there have been no
strikes on Thameslink and Great
Nothern where performance has
been just as bad.
Since GTR took over
operating Britain’s biggest rail
franchise in July 2015, around
146,000 services — nearly eight
per cent — have been either
cancelled or delayed.
Under a unique arrangement
with the DfT, the train firm does
not collect fare revenue itself
but is instead paid a fee to
operate the franchise by the
government.
Between the start of the
franchise and August 2017 the
DfT made payments of £2.8
billion to Govia and received
£3.6 billion from train tickets
allowing the government to use
it as a test-bed for expanding
driver-only trains.
In the report, comptroller-
general Amyas Morse said that
the government “recognised that
this franchise contract, which
was different from other
franchises in that fare revenue
was received by the department
rather than the operator, meant
that Govia Thameslink may
have less incentive to avoid
strikes than other operators”.
Shadow transport secretary
Andy McDonald said that the
National Audit Office's claim
that passenger misery could
have been avoided if the DfT
had taken more care to consider
passengers was true for the
entire railway.
Mr NAO also said that
Whitehall “did not fully
evaluate the possible effects on
passengers of different scenarios
of industrial action before
awarding the contract, nor did it
ask Govia Thameslink to do so”.
SOUTHERN FAIL
Damning report into Southern exposes
Tory collusion with private operators and
fuels demands for company to be
stripped of franchise